Worcester Art Museum to debut 48 Japanese prints at November show

Utagawa Hiroshige, ‘Crowds Visiting the Shrine of Benzaitenat Enoshima,’ 1851. Ink and color on paper. John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.1158
Utagawa Hiroshige, ‘Crowds Visiting the Shrine of Benzaitenat Enoshima,’ 1851. Ink and color on paper. John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.1158
Utagawa Hiroshige, ‘Crowds Visiting the Shrine of Benzaitenat Enoshima,’ 1851. Ink and color on paper. John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.1158

WORCESTER, Mass. — This fall, the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) will present The Floating World: Japanese Prints from the Bancroft Collection, an exhibition of 50 Japanese prints from the museum’s collection, 48 of which will be displayed for the first time. On view November 26 through March 5, 2023, the exhibition will take a comprehensive look at the diverse ukiyo-e genre through the lens of John Chandler Bancroft (1835-1901), one of the earliest and most significant collectors of Japanese prints in the United States.

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Japan Society presents ‘Shiko Munakata: A Way of Seeing’

Shiko Munakata, ‘Self-portrait with Hudson River,’ 1959. Photograph by Nicholas Knight. Collection of Japan Society. © Shiko Munakata
Shiko Munakata, ‘Self-portrait with Hudson River,’ 1959. Photograph by Nicholas Knight. Collection of Japan Society. © Shiko Munakata
Shiko Munakata, ‘Self-portrait with Hudson River,’ 1959. Photograph by Nicholas Knight. Collection of Japan Society. © Shiko Munakata

NEW YORK — Japan Society is pleased to present Shiko Munakata: A Way of Seeing, a presentation of nearly 100 path-breaking works by the celebrated artist Shiko Munakata (1903–1975). Primarily known for his powerfully expressive woodblock prints in black on white paper, this exhibition reveals the breadth of Munakata’s oeuvre, which spanned from prints to calligraphy, sumi ink paintings, watercolors, lithography and ceramics and occasionally included a vibrant color palette inspired by the colorful lantern floats in the annual Nebuta Festivals of his native Aomori Prefecture. Organized from Japan Society’s rare collection — the largest Munakata collection in the United States — the installation revisits this imaginative 20th-century artist. The show is on through March 20.

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